New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-02
MIR. LOWELL AND CHICAGO.
SUNNY 0LIMPsEs OF THE POETS VISIT.
mn. IN.

TIA preseuce OF Mr. James Russell Lowell has given
Chicago q tremendous boom a. literary centre In
literary circles this boom is not spoken Of a. ooo%
elsssic pedigree 70 render Il preferable to tho owy
and vulgar word boom. This impetus first became
apparen. last saturday afternoon when OF the dis
tinguished members Of the Chicago Literary Club
Manufacturer Of linseed oil happened to call at the
business Office OF another dsti1 gushed member OF the
a roe by tho papers," said the first litteratcur,
that James Russell Lowell is going to be in town
"Loweli Lowell J" queried the second litterateur
- il he trying to place the name "Oh, yes re-
member; the author OF the One Hoss Shay !"
Hall next Tuesday" explained the first iitterateur,
a.nd II has occurred to that ought to elect nm
IN honorary member of the club m.,.,
We'll" said the second ltteratenr, we II tpinh
about thattheres no special hurry You kbow we
haze to be little careful about taking up Win every
stranger that comes aIona however wei talk 1t over
At the next meeting. Here, you jim! 70 out on the
back root and drag them calf pelts out OF the ram
since Mr. Lowcil's address last Tuesday afternoon
we have taken pains to minge pretty freely with the
recognized literary folk OF town, and we have been
Of Gr Lowell and his work. We se told at the house
Ola C. McClurg Co. that durius the last iortyeight
hours there has been terrific demand tor LowelTs
books. One order came from wealthy pork packer,
and was for I" Lowel's works in binding to match my
'vues dc Paris Another order was for LoweIs
books, provided the whole set Ost more than 500.
These little incidents pleased greatly they
evidence that there is sprnging up among our people
. choice. q discriminating, an exacting taste which
"Iast evening"" said two Board OF Trade men,
ave mad the pleasure of long talk with MI. Lowell
We we're fully prepared to create favorable in pres
sion tor in anticipation OF meeting him. and follow
ing The example of our other fellow Ownsmen. we
had secured a complete line OF Mr. Lowcl,'s poems
and essays and had been feeding upon them Tor tort
nixht. Much to our disappointment. however, Mr.
Lowell appeared disncped to traverse the poetic and
misty vi-tas of the past with and when we con-
trived-with cousummate art and inefable subtihty
o. we fondly lima gined-to introduce into our introduce
tory remarks an spt quotation from Hosea Bi!low,
1s our spaor ~ ann The 20 VOL
OF it's trade. Mr. Lowell said that he had driven
about the city good DEAL had been charmed with the
beauty of avenues the extent and embellishments
OF our commons, the magnitude OF eDr pond and the
hospitality citizens. He i'd that he had Visited
the packing houses on the south SIDE and that ne was
disembOwelng live stock had it's advantages over the
conventional New-England way OF removing the bris-
tles OF pig with an iron o.ndlestck AT one OF the
renaern esta olishnents the proprietor received the
distinguished 2oot with great cordially After escort
ing him about the place and acquaining him with the
delicate details of the art this bosnitable host con-
Quoted Nj. Lowell to the private office and insisted
upon opening of champagne. To make the stu
aiion all the comfortable tor his guest the host
remarked pleasantly We always whOop it up to you
newspaper men, tor like as not, when you get back
home, you'll VII te us up"
Mr.. Elisha X. Rob ms who represented that he was
organizing club which be wanted to call the James
ia ss hoTe nad Wa the
the extent OF donation OF f2o. Mr. Lowell vas |
really very much embarrassed; he sympa:hized |
heartily with the scheme suggested and he appre- |
cisted very keenly the compliment which Mr.. Robbins
and his associates ambitious to confer; but he
compelled IL inform Mr. Robbins In the most deli
cate manner possible tuat in the hurry and excitement
OF starting upon his Western tour he had carelessly
LETT hi. Salet the escritoire IN bis room at home.
Mr. Robbins heartily shared Mr.. LOwers regret at
this awkward occurrence that. at meeting OF has ac-
completes last evening, he formally moved that this
organ, cation be and hereby is named the Julian
Hawthorne Literary Club"
1t useless to deny that l~any of our citizens
we're much Disappointed at the change which substi-
tuted a lecture on Richard I'LL for pot cal address.
We heard several of our most cultured fellow-towns
men a., that Dick Oglesby could talk all around
Lowell one OF most influential ctizens-a whole.
sale hquOr dcaleI-remarked: " have heard 'em all
now-l.owell and Logan and GinIa Palmer and all
OF em but for real eoquence and scholarship, give
me Carter II. Harrison IN spring campaign every
time"
Austin Fisher, the we'll known art connoisseur and
dealer in leaf lard, said: This man Lowell il
scholar and nice genteman-there's 40 denying that
but, you know, alter all think prefer Bill
Nye."
Colonel Ben Higgins the owner of Prairie
Belle, Sis Boots, and other noted flyers thought that
very indig nant' he said "We all there in our
best harness. and we expected that the race would
come Oh as advertised. OF course we were mad when
we found that the rogramme had been changed. The
event was billed as mile and quarter dash ana IL
was, in TACT only best-t6reein five trot--and slow
ut tnatl" Colonel Higgins went on to say that Mr..
Lowell had offended al the leading turf men in Chi
cage by choosing talk abOdt Shakespeare when he
had agreed to come here and make Grafton on the
Washington tark Club.
The theatrical people, too are berating Mr.. Lowell
for having that shakespeare did not xrite
Richard Ill I" If the governor here, said Mr.
Horacc McVicker ye terday, you can just bet that
he'd have card i'll all the papers. doing Mr. Lowell
MP in great shape he governor is great admirer
OF Shakespeare and when he was but tour years old
he played one OF the little princes III Richard III"
Mana, er X. NJ. Hooley was the only theatrical man
who approved the Lowell theory l remember hav-
ing experimental with Richard llonce time said
he at az about three years ago that a,eorge Edgar
c,un m
vino~ that Shakespeare wrote Richard Ill Alter
he had tined tor two week paid railroad ares tor
the whole crowd back East Alter Mr.. Low ellis lee
ture the afternoon walked up to the platform
gr-ped Mr. Lowel's hand. You have told the truth,
said Il; Il know how it is myself, for have been
Mr.. I. Percy Bottom-Jones, one OF wealtbiest
and most cultured citizens tells us that he entertained
Mr. Lowell at dinner the other enng and from the
description Mr. BottOm-JOnes gives we Judge that the
entertainment was in every way worthy OF Chicagos
reputation. I'VE had eighteen courses" says Mr.
BottomJones, and the whole spread cost me in the
nsghoornood OF 900 Lowell seemed to be Partic-
Sla, tn the sherry mast RsTs
evinced in your choice OF sherri,s; this is simply
Ss6cious' Well, i. ought to be- says l, for paid
What did Mr. Lowell say to that9" we asked.
"say ;" echoed Mr. Bottom-Jones. I" He didn't say
anything; but you never saw more surprised-look-
This brought TO mind very wildly the lines OF Paul.
mas Varro, the Latin pOet:
"Maceuss lie model host,
Wno DER bis WANTS niee
IL wont to each dish and boast
Its quality aud price,"
We do not know how this epigram will impress
Others but taking it with the results daily OBJ
ser, atoms. it goes long way toward convincing US
that Ito indulge IN pardOnae metaphor) the mantle
Of the most luxurious the most fastdious, and the
most refined OF grand old Roman times has fallen, so
to speak, upon the shoulders of the representatives Of
Chicago wealth and culture.
Speaking OF jokes reminds OF little incident that
Is being told OF the experience Mr. Lowell had at a
dinner given in his honor the other evening. A
wealthy patron of the arts and sciences wanted to
entertain the distn guished poet in fine STYLE and he
invited in all his rich neighbOrs to help him do the
hos pitabe act AS soon as Mr. Lowell entered the
parors snd presented to the company. OF the
ladies' ggg ing and gushing, said in those tones pecu
lar 10 aldv tenn a idocv % Oh Mr. IoWeu we've |